Heautoscopy, a rare hallucination of doubles

In the psychiatric literature, the phenomenon of the doppelganger or double is characterized into different types of delusional misidentification synd romes and heautoscopic symptoms. Specifically, we focus attention on heauto scopy, which might also be named "dissociative" after excluding an organic etiology. We report a case of heautoscopy in a woman and discuss the clinic al variability of this psychopathological phenomenon. Furthermore, a short treatment of the historical and literary implications of this delusion is p resented.